


Cool As Ice

by arboretum



Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, Uncle/Nephew Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 17:34:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17064113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arboretum/pseuds/arboretum
Summary: Souji considers what he wants.





	Cool As Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Why am I even here. I don't even go here. I don't even remember this game anymore. I had to google the main character's name. Why am I even-------- ??????
> 
> Watched a friend play P4 over twitter. Became briefly possessed by some sort of insanity.

It was a Wednesday night. Dojima was on his second beer, a flush in his cheeks.

Souji had a feeling he could not hold his drink.

Chie had brought beers for the team once — not even a full six pack, just two beers she’d smuggled out of her dad’s fridge — and made them all try them in the basement floor of Junes, after the store had closed early for a holiday. Yosuke had thrown a fit.

“What if my dad sees? What if an employee sees and then _tells my dad_? What if I get _arrested_?”

Chie spun the tab off the can she’d just opened and threw it at his face. With, Souji thought, unnecessary force, but count on Chie to do everything with unnecessary force. “You’re not going to get arrested, everyone is gone, and your dad is literally out of town, you told us yesterday. Anyway, who’s going to report _you_ to the police? Are you serious you’ve never even tasted a beer? Not even once?”

“What does that mean?” Yosuke had said, hurt. “And no! It’s illegal!”

“I dare you.”

“Is that supposed to work on me?!”

“I double dare you.”

To put an end to their silliness, Souji had picked the can up and taken a swig. It had tasted all right. Not great. A little bready. He guessed he would drink it again, maybe, if the occasion called for it.

Now Dojima was offering beer to him at home.

“Aren’t you a police officer?”

Souji took the beer from his hands and went to the sink to pour it out.

“Hey, that’s a waste!”

Nanako had gone to bed, and Souji was putting away dinner. The leftovers would be enough for a bento each for them tomorrow if he made some rice in the morning.

Dojima came up behind him and watched mournfully as the remaining half can of beer sloshed sadly down the drain. His breath was boozy by Souji’s ear. He was quite close.

“I think you’ve had enough,” Souji said mildly. “And it won’t taste good later anyway.”

“How do you know that?”

Souji looked at him and smiled a little. Dojima sighed.

“All right, all right, I won’t ask too many questions. You and your friends get up to all sorts of mischief behind my back, don’t you? I remember being that age.”

He swayed and leaned a little against Souji.

“You’re right, I should go to bed.”

Souji patted his hands dry on a towel and took his arm, gently, with one hand.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such a useless guardian. Don’t know what to do with teens, don’t even know what to do with kids.”

“I’ve been happy here,” Souji said, truthfully.

“Wish I could talk to you more like an adult, with wisdom, you know, advice —“ Dojima trailed off briefly before picking up his train of thought again. “But tell you the truth, you seem wiser than me half the time. What do you even worry about, kid? Grades? Your grades are good. Girls?”

Souji let the moment hang between them for a second. He glanced up into Dojima’s eyes. “No,” he said.

Dojima snorted and shook his head.

It was a short walk to the bedroom, and Souji let him lean against the wall just outside and monologue as Souji helped straighten up the futon that Nanako had already rolled out.

Dojima’s voice, muffled, from outside. “It’s been amazing having you here, I hope you know that. Nanako seems so much happier with you around. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Fall asleep on the sofa,” Souji said, coming back out to take his arm again. “With the TV on and a half-empty beer at your feet.”

“Wow, don’t hold back or anything, kid.”

Souji smiled again. “It’s ok, I like being able to help you. And everyone needs help sometimes.”

Dojima groaned a little as he rolled into bed fully-clothed — “Do you want me to—“ Souji began half-heartedly, and Dojima snorted, “I’ll kill myself before I let you baby me that much, I’ll just wake up and change later.”

Souji waited for a moment until he was sure Dojima was asleep. Next to him, Nanako shifted slightly and mumbled in her dreams. Dojima didn't stir.

“I worry about you,” Souji said, softly.

He got up and left the room and went to bed, but was still awake an hour later when he heard Dojima get up and shuffle about downstairs. He heard the water run in the kitchen, then the toilet flush, then the front door slide open and shut.

Souji crept out of bed and went to his window to look down at the front yard and saw Dojima standing by the side of the street, still in his rumpled clothes, smoking a cigarette and staring off into the distance.

He watched him for a while, then felt cold and got back into bed.

 

===

 

It was weeks later when Dojima was having a late morning that Souji said something. He had watched Nanako turn the corner, science project tucked under her arm, and then he had come back inside.

Dojima looked up at him from over his tea and stack of paperwork. “Aren’t you going too, or are you playing hooky today?”

“It was a teacher from my school this time,” Souji said. “They’re suspending school just for today.” That was a lie, but Dojima didn’t need to know that.

Dojima sighed and rubbed his temples. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I know. Nasty business. I’m sorry you kids have to go through this.”

“Do you have to go into the office today?”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course. Just this paperwork I need to finish. From an old case. The work never ends.”

He sounded tired and sad, like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Souji supposed he was, sort of. The weight of the town at least.

He sat down next to him and looked at the pile of paperwork, thought about things he could say. Can I help? Or, should I leave you alone? Or, is there anything I can do today?

“I like you,” he said, instead, selfishly.

Dojima didn’t react for a moment, just looked blankly down at his own handwriting. Then he said “What?” There was a slightly spooked look in his eye.

“I like you,” Souji said again.

Dojima stared, then looked away hurriedly, like he was scared he would be caught thinking the wrong thing. He shook his head and laughed.

“Uh, that's great, kid," he said with a sort of false lightness. He smiled but didn't look Souji in the eye again. "Well, of course. I like you too." He put down his pen then picked it back up again, then put it back down yet again. Then the paperwork caught his interest and he nudged the corner of the top page to be square with the pages beneath. “You know, I wouldn’t have kept you around this long if I didn’t like you, obviously. You’re pretty much like family to us — I mean, you are —“

“I don’t mean,” Souji said, stopping him. “I mean, I like you.” He put out his hand to stop Dojima’s trembling hand, and waited for him to look him in the eye. Dojima’s hand was cold from the morning chill, and Souji wished he could warm it.

Eventually Dojima met his gaze, and Souji saw that his face was drained of all color, and his eyes were watering, whether from emotion or nerves, Souji didn’t know.

“Don’t do this to me, kid,” he said quietly.

“Do what?”

Dojima looked away, apparently fascinated by his office work, fascinated by his pen, which had rolled to the corner of the table, but hadn’t quite fallen off.

“You’re really something,” Dojima said, in lieu of answering the question. He laughed, faintly, to himself. “You are really something, you know that? Cool as ice.”

Souji found this vaguely insulting, and said so. “I’m telling you my feelings,” he protested. “It’s not easy.”

“Well, what do you want me to do about it? Look at me, Souji. I’m an old man, and I’m—”

“Dojima-san," Souji said firmly, and Dojima stopped. "Do you dislike me?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to go away?”

A very long pause. “Maybe it would be better if you did,” he muttered eventually.

Souji mulled this over in his head. “Do you like me?”

This time the pause stretched out without end. It was the answer he wanted. He took a deep breath.

“I’m going to kiss you,” he said. “And you can tell me to stop any time.”

He reached out his hand to touch Dojima's jaw, and Dojima didn't stop him. He didn’t say a word, not even when Souji slid his suit jacket off his shoulders, not even when he unbuttoned the front of his shirt, not even when they wound up half on half off the couch in the living room, the morning news still playing faintly in the background.

Afterwards, Dojima carded his fingers through Souji’s hair and said, sadly, “What do you want with an old man like me, anyway?”

Souji thought about it for a while before answering. “I don’t know. I just like you.”


End file.
